Stewart, Pickering, and Sanford (1998) reported a new type of semantic inference, implicit consequentiality, which they suggest is comparable to, although not directly related to, the well-documented phenomenon of implicit causality. It is our contention that there is a direct relation between these two semantic phenomena but that this relation…

The mental models approach is outlined for the following topics: combinatory semantics, anaphora, and inference. The flexibility of the language-processing system is discussed. (18 references) (Author/LB)

Examines research on the interpretation of ambiguous sentences and the presence or absence of contextual override effects. This study also examines the requirements placed on computational models of word-by-word incremental processing. The emerging picture is of a multiple constraint-based system in which knowledge ranging from lexical through…

Two series of experiments investigate two hypotheses that may explain a conflict regarding pronomial reference. The hypothesis accepted is that the use of the gender cue is under the reader's strategic control; the hypothesis rejected is that implicit causality and gender cue interact differently with the complexity of the inference needed to link…